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Continuous lipase‐catalyzed production of wax ester using silicone tubing
Author(s) -
Wehtje E.,
Costes D.,
Adlercreutz P.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/s11746-999-0190-4
Subject(s) - lipase , wax , wax ester , candida antarctica , chemistry , chromatography , yield (engineering) , water activity , continuous reactor , immobilized enzyme , catalysis , silicone , solvent , stabilizer (aeronautics) , enzyme , materials science , organic chemistry , water content , composite material , mechanical engineering , geotechnical engineering , engineering
Enzymatic synthesis of cetyl palmitate was performed in a solvent‐free system at 65°C using immobilized Candida antarctica lipase. Batch reactions at controlled water activity showed that the yield could be increased from 88.8 to 99.1% by decreasing the water activity from 1 to 0.05. A continuous reactor configuration was constructed, where two tubular reactors were run in sequence with a separation container in between, in which the water phase was separated from the wax ester phase. The reactor was run for 1 wk at low flow rate (0.005 g/min) with very good operational stability and a productivity of 7.2 g d −1 using 0.4 g of biocatalyst. The activity of the individual preparations decreased during operation. The first reactor had only 30% activity left after 1 wk of operation whereas the second reactor showed only a 10% decrease. This difference in enzyme stability is a direct result of the different water activity in the two reactors.